Maintenance workers in Co-op City are back at work today after a weeklong strike at the sprawling 35-building housing complex.

About 500 workers will return to their jobs while union officials continue to bargain with the buildings’ management company, RiverBay Corporation, according to a statement released yesterday. The strike began last Tuesday after the workers’ current contract expired, and union and management officials were at a standstill over wage and health care negotiations.

In the meantime, garbage piled up outside the massive complex, which houses some 50,000 residents.

“The men and women who keep Co-op City running deserve quality health care and a fair wage just as of Co-op City residents deserve top quality service and maintenance—not the mounting piles of garbage and reduced services that they’ve been forced to endure for the past week,” said Kyle Bragg, Vice President of the service employees local union 32BJ,